{"id":23454,"date":"2023-02-13T11:46:57","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T11:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/?p=23454"},"modified":"2023-02-13T11:46:57","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T11:46:57","slug":"ergonomics-measuring-ergonomics-from-machinery-evaluation-to-certification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/ergonomics-measuring-ergonomics-from-machinery-evaluation-to-certification\/","title":{"rendered":"ERGONOMICS – MEASURING ERGONOMICS, FROM MACHINERY EVALUATION TO CERTIFICATION"},"content":{"rendered":"

A preview of the Webinar organised by Detergo Magazine and AIFL in collaboration with ErgoCert – “Measuring ergonomics. From evaluation to the ergonomic certification of machinery” that will take place on 9 March at 2.30 p.m. – we interview Marco Bordignon, the Technical Manager of ErgoCert, for a debate on ergonomic issues, particularly on textile care. How to combine the workers\u2019 health protection and the company’s profitability? What is ergonomic measuring? In the human\/machine interaction, can the compliance with the ergonomic principles lead to an improvement in the work organisation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s start with the first macro question. Ergonomics is an important part of the occupational safety. However, is it also possible to look the ergonomics from a different perspective than the traditional one, that of organisational efficiency?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In Italy there is a strong historical connection between ergonomics and safety, defined as an evaluation of the biomechanical overload. This combination is less perceived and less emphasised elsewhere. However, not everyone knows or remembers that ergonomics is the discipline that tries to combine the system efficiency and the workers\u2019 well-being, in essence with the goal to produce more by working better. This is exactly the definition given by the \u00a0International Ergonomics Association\u00a0(IEA), which is not placing the two aspects as distinguished. In Italy, where there are more attentive control bodies than elsewhere, there is a tendency to focus on the prevention aspect (health protection), with a particular concern for reducing the problems that generally tend to emerge as a result of cumulative exposure to physically intensive work activities.<\/p>\n

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But who is entitled to speak about health and safety in a company?<\/strong><\/span>
\nAs far as health and safety is concerned, it is obvious that the most qualified person is the RSPP (Responsible of protective and preventive services in the company). While if we focus on productivity, it should mainly be the engineering or technical departments that should respond. The corporate character dealing with ergonomics in the company also demonstrates the company’s maturity on the topic. There is a conceptual model, \u201cthe ergonomic maturity curve of the companies\u201d, which also defines the companies’ maturity according to the directly responsible spokesperson. If the responsibility is entrusted exclusively to the safety department or to the occupational doctor, it is clear that the problem has already been identified and the company is adopting a pro-active approach to the issue. If ergonomics is discussed with the offices responsible for design and production in a more restricted sense, then new proactive dynamics can be applied. For example, at Lamborghini, where we are currently carrying out some studies, the production and the safety departments have a fruitful dialogue on the subject.<\/p>\n

Which is the role of ergonomics in the laundries?<\/strong><\/span>
\nWe start with the inherent risk for the hands, shoulders, and back of an industrial laundry operator. The INAIL (in Italy), the organisation in charge of monitoring the ergonomic risk aspects of the activities, it is also the one that pays the compensations for the occupational disease (if the correlation between injury and safety failures can be proven). Even at the level of the small laundry shops, the inherent risk is very high, it is less perceived and less traceable, but it exists. Some of the biggest laundries have already started to approach the problem. We see an increasing interest from the companies’ side for the textile maintenance, although a change, a cultural leap, is needed.<\/p>\n

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This awareness usually starts right from the laundries, which are demanding higher ergonomic standards from the producers. The safety law decree (D. Lgs.81\/08) defines the \u201ccompliance with the ergonomic principles in the design of the workplaces\u201d. Which is the problem? That the decree is not clearly defining the ergonomic principles, leaving much interpretation space, and above all, the failure for its implementation is not properly sanctioned. And this causes a blockage. The compliance with the ergonomic principles is also strictly defined in the machinery guidelines and should therefore be required by the buyer and provided by the designer, something that often it is not happening.<\/p>\n

How should we actually proceed to achieve the ergonomic parameters, which are the key steps?<\/strong><\/span>
\nDefining a machine in ergonomic terms means evaluating the users (those who perform a certain task), what they do (task) and where they do it (environment). Frequently, some activities are carried out by women and the dimensions of the machines are not ergonomically compatible as the machines cannot be adjusted to the body size of the operator or female worker. We are talking about repetitive activities, 70% of them being performed by women, who are on average shorter than men, but that also have less strength. Of course, there are also necessary some measurements on the field regarding physical interaction, postures and efforts. In the past, this was not measurable and it was done through video analysis or interviews.<\/p>\n

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We also consider that ergonomic interventions have four measurable impacts according to a study carried out by the Washington State Department of Labour and Industry:
\n– reduced musculo-skeletal disorders
\n– reduction in sickness leave
\n– reduction in damage compensations
\n– increased productivity<\/p>\n

There might be different models of ergonomics financial evaluation (Return Of Investment), as well as payback periods, but in essence it is well known that investment in ergonomics brings profitability to the business organisation. Let’s then also consider two problems that will become systemic and that are already creating some headaches to the national system as a whole, as well as for the companies: professionalism as a valuable asset that needs to be protected, considering that for some professions it is difficult to find people that wants to carry them out, or, in any case, not suitable figures to fill certain roles; but also, the ageing population – with the gradual increase of the retirement age – will increase the average age of the workers, that will be more carefully preserved, also in the light of the required production targets. \u2022<\/p>\n

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ERGOCERT – Ente di Certificazione per l’Ergonomia srl
\nERGOCERT – Ergonomics Certifying Institute Ltd
\nVia Aquileia 26\/3 – 33100 Udine, Italy
\nTel: +39 0432 229688
\nemail: info@ergocert.it www.ergocert.net<\/a><\/p>\n

By Marzio Nava
\nDETERGO Magazine # February 2023<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A preview of the Webinar organised by Detergo Magazine and AIFL in collaboration with ErgoCert – “Measuring ergonomics. From evaluation to the ergonomic certification of machinery” that will take place on 9 March at 2.30 p.m. – we interview Marco Bordignon, the Technical Manager of ErgoCert, for a debate on ergonomic issues, particularly on textile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[455,458],"tags":[2436,2439,2438,2440,2437],"class_list":{"0":"post-23454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news-en","8":"category-topnews-en","9":"tag-ergocert","10":"tag-ergonomic-parameters","11":"tag-ergonomics-in-the-laundries","12":"tag-increased-productivity","13":"tag-measuring-ergonomics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23454"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23501,"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23454\/revisions\/23501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.staging.detergo.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}